In which issues concerning the profession of philosophy are bitched griped about

Saturday, June 27, 2015

A NEW Permanent Thread to Talk or Ask or Post Information about Specific Jobs (6/27/15)

[REDUX] A lot of people in the comments seem interested in having space to discuss or request information about specific jobs. If providing information and if possible, please provide the source of your information.

Here's a permanent thread for this. Perhaps we can use the other open threads for people to trade horror or success or weird stories, any hints that they might think are helpful, strategies for dealing with stress of the job market, etc. [I'll try to get an open thread up soon.]

In the future, after this isn't at the top of the page, you can find this thread in the sidebar. Here's a picture, with the place to find this thread in the future.

810 comments:

The University of Houston advertised for a tenured position. They only advertised on InsideHigherEdJobs.com, and nowhere else. In the past they've advertised their TT openings on philjobs, like everyone else. Obviously a bullsh*t search, with an inside candidate in mind.

Although Bristol department members are not reading this, I just want to say I am impressed by how they set everything up to make people feel welcome, get the opportunity to ask questions in a non-interview/evaluation context. Whoever gets the offer will be so lucky to work there!

1:16 Note that in the Netherlands, tenure and promotion are two separate decisions. So if all goes well (you publish decently and you are collegial and your teaching evaluations are decent) you get tenure - it's not a strenuous process as in the US. But promotion is a separate decision. Some people are pensioned and never rose above the level of assistant professor. To become full professor, you need to get one of the existing chair positions or win some or other huge grant - it is not based on merit. But UvA is a great working environment, with an interesting, strong, diverse faculty and lots of foreigners, so it is definitely worth applying to.

Received a rejection letter from UCD (Dublin) for the temporary teaching fellow only two days after the deadline. It says that the committee has made the shortlist. Does that show they already have internal candidates?

FWIW, Nottingham also shortlisted a few days after their deadline. It is just not the case that internal candidates get the job. I keep on seeing speculation about internal candidates on the Smoker, but in my experience and those of others, it is not a guarantee for the job. I was an internal candidate for a TT position where I was a postdoc. I did not get the job. The internal candidate is, after all, a known quality. External candidates are exciting. Except if the university is situated in a geographically undesirable area, or there are other reasons to assume flight risk (in which case the internal candidate is a safe bet), it is my experience and those of others I've spoken to that being the internal candidate is rarely an advantage.

In the past few years, my department hired 2 positions, both of which we had internal candidates for (both were 2-year VAPs applying to TT when we were allowed to convert the lines).

In the first instance, we did not hire the internal candidate. In the second, we did. The IC lost the job in the first instance because she was a terrible teacher, whose research record went on hold while she was here. The IC won the job in the second instance because he very quickly established himself as one of the best teachers in the department, and his research output for those 2 years surpassed that of any of his TT colleagues in that period.

ICs have an advantage in that they have the chance to form connections with the department (both faculty and students), which can possibly help sway considerations, and are also in a position to demonstrate positive intangibles (like "fit"). By the same token, however, their flaws are also much more easily identifiable, and they also are in a position to burn bridges other applicants cannot. (ICs will be judged by the teaching they do for the time spent in the department. If that teaching is not strong, the rest of the teaching portion of the application isn't relevant.) Familiarity is a double-edged sword.

2:03 is right, in that many ICs get jobs because their departments see them as flight risks. (We almost lost the one we hired, as he was a finalist for a job at a much more prestigious university.) But that's only if the department doesn't want them to leave. Plenty of ICs lose out on jobs because they fail to demonstrate that they are the best applicant to the position.

FWIW, I think internal candidates are almost always going to be weaker than open-searched candidates. Why? Well because the internal candidates won a VAP, which is wayyyyy less competitive than a tenure-track position. We've had several internal candidates and they never win the tenure-track competitions. (I'm sure they win them somewhere, but probably smaller schools where the research requirements for TT aren't as high. VAP's going to be someone from someplace ranked 20-40, TT going to be from top 10.)

FML. I am still waiting to hear back from VAP positions for THIS year. I guess I won't get any break from the job market season this year. Or perhaps I should say that the job market season is now truly year round...

Dear [the author of this post], I'm sorry to inform you that after careful consideration our department has decided not to pursue your application for our visiting position. We received a surprising number of strong applications, and the search involved many difficult decisions. I wish you the best in your job search. Regards

Dear [college writing me], After careful consideration of my records I see that it has been more than two years since I sent an application to your institution for any job openings. While I appreciate the attention that my file has received over the past 28 months, you may find that future searches involve less difficult decisions if they are restricted only to applicants.

Hi - just a couple of basic job-related questions for a beginner, if anyone can help...

(1) where are the wikis and/or other sites online that a lot of job ads (particularly tenure-track) are posted? Are there a few on which most hiring institutions post their job ads, and most job-seekers go routinely to look for postings? I know of HigherEdJobs, but there must be a few really common and well-known ones with a lot of traffic that I am missing...

(2) Is it really the case that the Eastern APA is no longer really important for the first round of interviews? Is it really kind of a peripheral thing for hiring institutions and job-seekers? Someone who is much senior to me in philosophy academe told me it was still important around 8-10 years ago , but she also told me that with Skype etc. that she doubts it is really that important in the job search process these days, for either job-seekers or hiring institutions...just trying to get more of a feel for that.

@9:38: Smug much? Their strengths are relative to their mission of teaching undergraduates, not to whatever status game you'd rather be playing. It doesn't matter how brilliant a logician you think you are if they don't need anyone else to cover their logic classes.

Gettysburg has a strength in logic, but no logician on their faculty. They have a strength in philosophy of mind, but no philosopher of mind on their faculty.Do I have to be a status game-player to think there's something funny about that? (I'm not 9:38.)

Thank you applying for the recently advertised position of Assistant Professor. Columbia University receives many applications from highly qualified candidates for its academic positions, and our search committees review each carefully to find a candidate whose strengths best match our needs. The search committee that reviewed your application was impressed with your background and accomplishments. However, it has identified other candidates whose credentials make them better choices for this position.

We appreciate the time and effort you put into your application and we extend our best wishes on your search for a position that will take advantage of your many strengths.

I'm not sure I see what is funny about the ad (though I do know the Gettysburg faculty, so I am not disinterested). What they mean by "strength" is what they have people already dedicated to teaching to those classes. With such a small department, they presumably prefer breadth of coverage to depth in a field they already teach. This strikes me as fairly standard for a SLAC (I could imagine my own institution phrasing this similarly).

Just received a PFO from Georgia College and State regarding a "Lecturer" position I applied for last cycle. Thanks for informing me! I was on the edge of my seat waiting to hear back and holding out hope!!

When do places usually conduct on-campus interviews? More in February or March or later? I will be traveling abroad in February and I'm wondering if it will complicate other plans in the incredibly lucky event that i were to land an on-campus. Any insights would be much appreciated!

"Applicants should submit a CV, a cover letter, a writing sample, evidence of effective teaching (such as summaries of teaching evaluations and/or a teaching statement), and the names and email addresses of at least three references. Applicants will then receive an email with a link to send to references so they can upload their letters to the system."

I could be wrong though. Though you didn't ask for any advice, I'll give it anyway: don't sweat this stuff. I know it's easy to get your hopes up, but I would save it for a later stage when you have some power over what they think of you.

So people who applied to the University of Richmond job and are using interfolio: Did they request your letters when you finished the application? I *didn't* get a request when I finished the application even though the ad mentioned an automated system for recs so I was wondering if something somehow got messed up or if in fact they're not requesting letters at this stage.

7:18 - I'm a philosopher of science and was very pleased with the number of jobs in my AOS. Another observation: Lots of jobs outside the US: Canada, the UK, Singapore, Korea, the Netherlands - all great countries to live in.

Regarding the philjobs ad for SUNY Purchase: Does anyone know what the little superscripted cross at the end of the school name is for? Just an odd typo? I assumed it was footnoting something but couldn't find anything on the site that made it clear.

Under the 'help' section, it gives an explanation. Long story short: the SUNY system was censured for abuse of administrative power some time in the past and so all the schools within SUNY are thereby also censured.

@7:24 - Thanks! I assumed it was something like that. Good to know. I do find the mechanism the APA uses for marking censured schools somewhat frustrating. Without information on what, when, and (in cases of giant university systems with multiple campuses) who, is being censured it's hard to use the notations as any kind of guide indicative of schools to avoid.

Is there any proof that the market is all that terrible this year? To me it actually seems quite decent to good. (I work in value theory and history of philosophy, so it's not that I'm in different areas than the commenters who are freaking out). There are about 35 to 40 jobs I can apply to without really stretching my AOS or AOC and another 15 that are stretches but not ridiculous ones. That's about fifty jobs, which is as good as I've ever seen the market at this point. Back in the days of the JFP half or more of the jobs would be posted *after* the October JFP, and that's about as far along as we are. So from everything I can tell it's on pace to be a decent to very good year, though it's way to early to tell. Maybe I'm wrong but I'd like to hear some argument for that and not just some emoting of unfounded panic.

Not just history of philosophy. The market this year is awful for Continental. Seems like an analytic smorgasbord in comparison. Last year at this time there were 7 or 8 attractive Continental positions. This year, maybe one.

In 2014, there were 100 TT hires: http://philosopherscocoon.typepad.com/blog/2014/04/on-sample-data-on-this-years-tt-hires.html

This year there are 115 TT postings so far on philjobs: http://tinyurl.com/ncekcvp

The philjobs # is approximate, given that some of those jobs aren't in philosophy proper and some TT jobs aren't posted on philjobs (and a couple have expired). But given that 2013-14 seemed like a better year than last, this year seems like an improvement already. And it's only mid-October.

I agree with 11:39. Last year was my first year, and I'm in history of philosophy. While certain areas of history are not as well represented (Early Modern), there are a decent number of jobs with an open AOS and an AOC in history in general. So it seems that whatever area of history one is in, you'll have a decent selection of jobs that you don't have to stretch yourself for. I'm not sure about other areas.

Likewise, I checked when various jobs were posted last year: quite a few good ones (for me) were posted in late October.

For Oct 12 1:24pm. I noticed the same things about Richmond. Filled out the online app, but Interfolio never requested that I check out with the letters. I guess they'll request them if they want them??

For Oct 18, 8:30 and Oct 12 1:24: i noticed when i filled out the app that it says if you are using interfolio to have your letters sent via email from interfolio to URHR@richmond.edu.

I wasn't sure about this, so I waited two days. When my letters weren't requested, i had them emailed to HR. I'm still not sure if this was the right thing to do (I never received any kind of confirmation or anything--so maybe this isn't what you are supposed to do). However, it does say to do this on the online application on the page where you input your recommender information.

I considered signing up for another account with another email address in order to double check (you could do that if you really wanted to be sure), but I was reasonably sure of the directions. What's another six dollars?

Dear 11:26 and 8:30, I actually emailed the administrative assistant in the Richmond dept. about this (very nice woman by the way) and she said to send the letters to the URHR address which I did. So that seems like all you need to do.

I was just realizing that it felt like there was something missing in my life, and then I realized.... I haven't been obsessively checking the jobs wiki. SO I did, and found....nothing. What's the deal? Are we not doing phylo wiki anymore? If not, where? And.... If not now, when?

Yeah, 4:17, I was just about to ask the same thing. I've tried submitting info to add jobs to the unofficial phylo wiki, but they don't get added (I might not be doing it correctly). Is this thread meant to be a place where we can ask/post/obsess about specific jobs?

Ditto, 4:17 PM and 4:10 AM. I tried to submit a job a couple of weeks ago, and it was not added. Perhaps the readers of this blog did not express enough enthusiasm when Jaded, on behalf of one of the Phylo job wiki founders (David Morrow), asked whether we would like to continue using the current job wiki. (See the post of August 25, 2015.)

A handful of people have submitted a handful of jobs to the wiki, but as Anon 9:09 surmises, I've left them in the moderation queue because of the lack of discussion on the post from August 25. So please go there to discuss what you'd like to do about a wiki this year.

I made it to the 'second round' for the other St Andrews job. I figure they are at that stage for the moral political job too. Maybe they have shortlisted - I haven't heard. A couple weeks ago they told me 'second round' and asked for writing samples.

has anyone else out there tried applying for the Bilkent University TT job, or have connections at Bilkent? When I tried to apply, the app refused to accept the authenticator code/captcha no matter how many times I correctly input it. Not to mention that ever attempt required first reattaching all my docs again. It got boring, so I gave up. But I would like to apply someone could be bothered to fix the damn app.

"Humanistic research is, by definition, open ended, not necessarily linear, and most definitely interested in meaning, not proof. Even false data in the humanities is meaningful. The fact, however, that people, goods, and ideas move across urban or geographic space makes something like Geographic Information Systems, for example, extremely useful to humanists who are able to mathematically integrate geometric abstractions of how we live together while transgressing underlying topologies made only of points, lines, polygons, and pixels."

Shrug. Just another one of those things that fits some fad in the "humanities" but which excludes philosophy. Although there is a regular continental conference called 'philosophy and the city' whose participants may do work that would sort of fit this theme.

some of you will have seen this, but I think it will be of interest to this crowd. Carolyn Dicey Jennings has done some placement data (we owe her a big thanks for this!) Some results here: http://dailynous.com/2015/09/01/philosophy-job-placement-data-update/

I was very surprised by the graphs in 3.3 and 3.4 I wonder if I am somehow misinterpreting the data. First, the results in 3.3 suggest that in each year, about half of candidates get a permanent or TT job. This strikes me as very high. Not all department reported, indeed most solicited did not. Does that explain these (by my lights..) high numbers?

Second, look at 3.4. If I'm reading these right, there is a pronounced trend in the direction of hiring candidates who are ABD or within 1 year of defense. E.g., look at 2014 --- fully 96 percent of those hired were either ABD or to defend in 2015. Could this be right? Am I missing something? Before looking at this data, I would've thought that candidates further out from their PhD would be much more attractive than this.

If anyone has explanations or if I am somehow misinterpreting the results, please do let me know.

8:22, I take it that the graph shows those people who received their doctorate in 2014. No one who has received their degree in 2014 has gotten a job in 2016 yet, so almost everyone from 2014 who has a job got it shortly after receiving their degree. The remaining 4% all got their jobs several years before finishing their degree.

These graphs don't include the graduation data yet, and capture only those in our database, who found some sort of placement. We will be including graduation data soon, and are currently in the process of verifying the accuracy of our data...a slow process.

Well, given the lack of enthusiasm for switching platforms and the fact that Anon 11:18 only created a wikia.com page "until Phylo Wiki starts up" and the fact that if I hadn't spent the morning setting things up, I would have had to grade papers, the Phylo wiki is now up and running.

@11:58: Almost certainly a waste of time, unless (a) you have a really kick-ass CV, (b) can make a plausible case that you could develop one or more of the listed AOCs, and (c) have a really strong reason for wanting to work at that school. If you don't meet all three of those criteria, you're wasting your time and the search committee's, because you'll get knocked off the list by people whose excellent CVs demonstrate the relevant AOCs.

The email was generic and said the candidate pool had been narrowed to 26. It then asked each of the 26 to send 3 letters to chair of search committee. From the 26, 10 would get phone interviews in December.

@11:58 - I recently landed an AOS open tenure-track position even though I did not fit any of the AOC. The AOC they listed were of the person who left, but they were willing to consider someone with different strengths as well. They'll now adapt the curriculum to fit my AOCs. In my cover letter, I stressed fit with the department as well as some complementarity, and some things about how I saw myself fitting in the school's mission. Although it's a time investment, I'd recommend people to apply for AOS open jobs even if they do not fit any of the AOC. After all, the baseline probability one lands the job is always very small, so it seems rational to apply for AOS open jobs

Regarding AOS/AOCs: Based on my own experience on a search committee last year, and participation in departmental discussions of faculty job ads, one of the functions of the job ad (not just the AOS/AOC, but other requirements listed) is to give the committee an easy explanation for HR about why an application was rejected. In my school (and many others) HR requires SCs to report a reason for rejecting every single applicant who is rejected. You don't want to have to write out a lengthy response explaining why someone was not suitable, you want to be able to say "did not fit job description" or some such. Adding things to the AOC serves that purpose nicely.

All of which is to say that what's in the ad may or may not reflect the true criteria of the SC.

For a job at, say Mercy College, which no philosophy department and only four named philosophy classes in the catalog. Is it fair to assume that the teaching load will be about 4/4? I always worry when jobs don't post their teaching load/responsibilities.

Thanks, 9:57 & 2:22 – just wanted to check my assumptions. I don’t have a worry, really, just another year of stability after this. So if I could get at most a 3/3 load TT this year, I would be extremely happy.

I see according to the wiki that Tampa has scheduled interviews. While I fit the fairly narrow AOS nicely, I didn't apply (yet), because the philjobs site lists the deadline as Feb. 1. Going back to look at the ad itself, I see it does say that they would begin reviewing applications on Nov. 1, so I guess I should have read it more carefully. But it's still a little frustrating that I missed the deadline for the job due to the error in the listing. Just venting a little. Thanks for listening, internet.

The deadlines are usually intended as necessary conditions for consideration, not sufficient. So you have to get your app in by Feb. 1, but that's usually not enough. As was the case with UT. In my jobs file I have a column for deadlines and another for review by dates. It's probably a good idea if you did that as well.

2:04, that seems odd to me. If the "review by" date is the sufficient condition for consideration, then isn't that the real deadline? What work is the later "deadline" doing? In other words, why even have a column in your jobs file for "deadlines" if there is an earlier "review by" date? It's not a rhetorical question. I'm really curious. I just assumed that the "deadline" listed in the ad was a mistake. Am I missing something?

I don't think the review by date is always the real deadline, since I've missed it and gotten an interview before. There might be cases when you sit on an app for a few days past a soft deadline because you think you're about to hear back from a journal or something. Also, sometimes a bunch of soft deadlines pass at the same time. If you're just not in the mood to apply all at once, you know you can afford to spread it out a bit. But when the two dates are far apart, consider the later one HR's formal deadline and not something relevant to you.

Also, there is a "for full consideration" deadline, which might be different than the official one. The committee might continue to look at applications as they come, if they are not super happy with what they have so far.

7:37: In the past the first two weeks of December were when most interview requests came. I don't know if that's changed or not though with very few people interviewing at the APA and jobs being advertised earlier on the APA. I haven't done the job search all the seriously for the last two years so if anyone who has thinks I'm wrong please do jump in. If the wiki is to be believed a small number of places have already scheduled interviews, but I think the wiki is very very unreliable.

Somebody either doesn't know how the job wiki works or is screwing with people. Several entries have come up as past application deadline when there are weeks left until the deadline. If whoever is doing this is reading posts here, learn how the wiki works and/or stop trying to deceive people.

That might have been me, though I'm not sure. I understand your frustration, but deadlines are easily verified by following the links on the wiki. In fact, it would be very odd for anyone to use the wiki as a guide for when to turn in their applications.

Someone's maliciously screwing with the wiki! That's, that's..... pretty much par for the course. Don't ever trust the wiki. On at least one occasion I got an interview almost a week after a school supposedly scheduled their's and most of my friends can tell you similar stories. Still it's hard not to look at the damned thing even if you know it's not to be trusted. Anyone have any advice about how not to check it every five minutes or otherwise obsess while waiting to hear something? I'd really like to know how people keep their minds occupied during the whole waiting bit. Also, I'm curious do most interview requests still come in the first half of December or have people found that's no longer the case?

"On at least one occasion I got an interview almost a week after a school supposedly scheduled their's and most of my friends can tell you similar stories"

But this is different. IF someone is knowingly posting jobs on the wiki as past application deadline when the jobs are not, then some people may see that and incorrectly determine that the deadline has passed and so won't apply. Yes, we should verify the deadlines, but some people might not. When someone incorrectly posts that first round interviews have been scheduled--and sometimes such interviews are scheduled over an extended period of time, so it wouldn't be inaccurate--the worst that could happen is that someone who has already applied would be disappointed.

Even more importantly, it's easy to do it the right way. If you're going to post to the wiki and you want to do it the right way, just learn how it's done. If someone is doing it maliciously, then you should all be aware that this is happening.

"Anyone have any advice about how not to check it every five minutes or otherwise obsess while waiting to hear something? I'd really like to know how people keep their minds occupied during the whole waiting bit."

Based on my experience, the only thing that works is genuinely reorienting your values, expectations, and focus in life so that other elements of your day to day life matter more to you than whether you land an academic job, and an acceptance of the certainty that - no matter what happens to you - a number of qualified philosophers will end up un/underemployed. Of course that approach risks undermining the motivation to pour so much of yourself into your next round of applications - but it can do wonders for your mental health.

I've found about 20mg a day of s-citalopram, and occasional trips to my therapist, to very helpful as well. Tend to your mental health, and as Derek said, rehearse always in your mind the facts you know about the shittiness of the philosophy job market! And be well!

I agree that a reorientation of values along with the self-reminder that this is a terrible market really helps. This is my fifth and last year on the market. I'm just not going to do it anymore after this.

One suggestion as far as reorientation goes-be careful about how you engage with profession. This has really helped me get a better grip on reality outside of the philosophy world. I have stopped reading certain blogs (mainly Leiter's) and avoid certain blog posts (I love Daily Nous, but I don't want to read about elitist in-fighting, mainly Leiter invoked). These people (e.g. people like Leiter and close to Leiter) don't matter in the bigger picture. They aren't influencing public policy and have extraordinarily little impact (if any) on social issues. The less I know about all of this the better. To use a cliche...the opposite of love is not hate...it's indifference. And, I just want to be indifferent about the profession.

"The cover letter must include a link to a personal webpage formatted specifically for this application. Place the link to your personal webpage immediately after the salutation of your cover letter. The information on the personal webpage must be arranged in the order shown in the sample at this link https://sites.google.com/site/grandolphmayes/sacramento-state-university-philosophy-job-application as follows..."

"The cover letter must include a link to a personal webpage formatted specifically for this application. Place the link to your personal webpage immediately after the salutation of your cover letter. The information on the personal webpage must be arranged in the order shown in the sample at this link https://sites.google.com/site/grandolphmayes/sacramento-state-university-philosophy-job-application as follows..."

It's the best way to ensure only the most desperate people will apply.

Sacramento pulled that same stunt last year. The requirements seem like a test of the candidate's ability and/or willingness to follow arbitrary commands. In their (feeble) defense, they are looking for someone to teach online/hybrid courses and someone who can "contribute" to the teaching of "digital humanities." I teach online philosophy courses occasionally, but I've never had to actually build a website to do it. Maybe they don't have such things as Canvas and Blackboard at Sacramento. Possibly they think "digital humanities" requires both scholarship in the humanities and the ability to write code. I don't know exactly what "digital humanities" really means (which seems to me to be a moving target), but I'm fairly certain it does not mean that.

Anyone applying for the Florida International job: Did you ever receive a prompt to submit email addresses for letters of recommendation? I never received the prompt, yet when I attempt to resubmit my application, it says I've already applied. Very frustrating.

2:13 -- Mine did get requested and I got a delivery confirmation. I'm so sorry if you have been the victim of a glitchy internet! I hope you can get it cleared up with Interfolio or Purchase or whomever. That kind of thing is just the worst :(

Can we start a new thread for 2015-2016 job application season stuff? This one is so far down I don't think many people are checking it.

ON a different job note--what percentage of jobs do people think are actually updated on the wiki? I am feeling good that a few of my hopefuls have not yet updated on the wiki but wondering if it is a reflection of reality or just people not updating..... I remember last year it was less common for the super fancy jobs to get updated, the ivys and other top 10 (or 20) analytic programs, but wondering if this happens for many other jobs too.

2:13,It might be the case that the search committee decided not to request letters from all applicants, just those that made some sort of short list. After doing this for four years, I've noticed that most online applications systems request letters immediately but others seem to wait (this is the minority, though).

I'd check to make sure that the interfolio email addresses are correct and if not follow up with the HR folks.

You don't need to scroll down to reach this thread. There's a link on the right, under the drawing. Also, the recent comments roll on the right lets you know when a person left a comment. Most of them end up in this thread.

15% of jobs have already called their shortlisted candidates.25% of calls will be made this week.25% of calls will be next next week.20% of calls will be made in the latter half of December.10% of calls will be made in early 2016.5% of calls will never be made; these searches will be cancelled.

Has anyone heard from the University of Utah, UMass Amherst, or North Central College?

My contribution (which I also posted on the job wiki): San Diego State University has conducted on-campus interviews and has chosen their top pick. The University of Tampa did Skype interviews two weeks ago. I haven't heard anything else. Drexel is down to 4 finalists and is doing Skype interviews this week.

Wait a second here. So you received an empty email from Lake Forest. And you are wondering what it means. So why don't you just ask them? "Dear Prof. [ ], I recently received an email from your department, but there must have been a mistake. The email has no content--just a subject line. It was sent on [ ] at [ ]. Can you explain this? Thanks! [Your name]"

@12:46 I received an email from Lake Forest today 12/2. I read it on my iphone and it was a picture of a signed letter addressed to me that read something along the lines of " we received your application, it is complete. We are reviewing all applications and will contact the best qualified shortly to set up interviews at the Eastern APA."

When I look at the email on my desktop it is blank. So there must have been a glitch in the way they sent the emails.

Perhaps they are still making their decisions about who else to interview??

5:02, how come you got a request for letters from North Central? They asked for letters upfront with the application. And, since the application was to be submitted through Interfolio, I wouldn't have thought that anybody's letters would have failed to reach them.

I received the same email. I saw it first on my phone and I saw the letter saying that my application was complete and they will be contacting people shortly. When I tried to open the same letter on my laptop the email was empty. That same day (Nov. 30) the wiki said they have made calls for first round of interviews.

It is strange that they would send out the same email/letter after the 30th.

(1) The job isn't exactly just a one-year VAP. It's an Assistant Professor position but not tenure-track. The initial appointment is for 1 year, but could be longer, eventually indefinite, if all goes well. There is someone there already in this kind of position---permanent but not tenure-track. So it may very well end up as another one of those. Not ideal, but looks like that's what we're dealing with.

(2) The search committee aims to do interviews at the Eastern APA. So apply ASAP if you want a chance to get in on that!

(3) One can reasonably complain about much of this, no doubt. But I hear red tape is the culprit (and, in general, administrators controlling too much of the process).

Just got the update on the open search at Gettysburg, they got 550 applicants. Holy Jeebus! But, I wish other schools could see their delightfully clear, informative, and UNAMBIGUOUS update-email. That's how you do that shit, make sure people know it is a form email! Classy.

9:51 here: I didn't mean to imply that philsci should get its own thread. In fact, quite the opposite, I got the impression that philsci wasn't welcome as quite a few philosophers (some of them apparently on search committees) I got to know and interact with did not think of philsci as philosophy... this is part of the reason why I don't apply for open aos positions...